The Politics of Globalisation and Polarisation - Hardcover

Mullard, Maurice

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1843765799 ISBN 13: 9781843765790

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2004

Synopsis

This book deals with the nature of contemporary globalization. Maurice Mullard shows that globalization is not an inescapable, unstoppable process somehow beyond human control, rather that it represents, and is being shaped by, a series of deliberate policy choices and policy decisions. The emphasis of this fascinating work is on how these policy choices are creating new forms of economic inequalities and also political elites that distort the democratic process.

The mapping of winners and losers goes beyond the usual analysis of the rich North versus the poor South, by including an examination of the widening inequalities in the North and the emergence of new elites in the South. Policies of privatization and liberalization of water and electricity create new political elites. The author reveals the shift in the North towards multi-national corporations with their emphasis on profits and stock market prices, while at the same time incomes for most employees have either stagnated or actually declined. The standard discourse on globalization and market flexibility often blurs the issues of declining trade union influence and corporations moving to countries offering lower labor costs. Maurice Mullard herein attempts to rectify this imbalance.

The Politics of Globalisation and Polarisation is interdisciplinary and will therefore be relevant for academics and researchers of politics, social policy, public policy and economics. Scholars involved in globalization will find this book to be a major contribution to the ongoing debate.

About this title

About the Author:

Maurice Mullard, University of Hull, UK

About this edition

• Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 1843765799
• ISBN 13: 9781843765790
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 232